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In an attempt to copy a copyprotected audio cd, I stuck a small peice of paper over the outer ring so as to not read the data portion of the cd. Most of you that have copied a modern audio cd know what I am talking about. I should have used tape.

Problem is, I didn't exactly use a peice of paper, it was a small peice of a post-it note. Ya know, little yellow pads for writing office memos and such for other employees to see by "sticking" it to a bulletin board or door, etc.

Shouldn't have done that as the post-it has a weak stickiness at the sticky edge. A small part of the post-it broke off and is now somewhere in the drive. I want to kick myself; I should have used a real adhesive tape rather than a post-it.

The drive seems to operate fine. I have since copied 2 cds. Beyond that, however, I do not know what condition it is in, i.e., I don't know if it will work without problems in the near future or fail prematurely. It has a small 5mm by 4mm peice of paper in it somewhere.

I was inclined to send it to TDK straight away, let them get it out. What do you think?

Beleive me, my impulse was to open it up, search for it myself, but that immediately voids the warranty, so I stopped myself.
Although I have never seen the insided of a cdrw drive, I can just imagine this small peice of paper getting hot enough to short circuit some component, perhaps even ruining the drive completely.

If the drive is under warranty, I would send it back to TDK for a replacement. If its not under warranty, You're just going to have to open up the drive yourself and try to remove the post it note yourself.

You could try using a powerful vacuum clean like a shop-vac with an appropriately shaped nozzle for lining up with the opening of the burner.

Turn the computer off first before trying this and see if you can suck that little piece of paper out of there. If you cover the vac opening with a piece of gauze or some other filter to trap the particle, you can then be sure that it was removed.

In my experience, this procedure is not likely to cause any problems and is worth a try. In the worst case scenario, if the drive is still under warranty, you can always send it back for repair.

I would pop it open warranty or not and get the paper out myself. You know the drive still works OK and it will save you from having to take it back or ship it off and wait.
If your carefull enough it shouldn't be any problem and nobody will know you ever popped it. I have done this to a Plex 40 wide I have many times becuase the door gets sticky and it has been fine when put back together.
But it's your drive and if the warranty still applies you could just send it back, they probably never open them just send out another unit.

Thanks guys.
I've thought it over. I've used the burner to copy 2 audio cds since this happened. I'm just going to let this go and maybe the drive will continue to function properly. If it runs into problems, then I'll deal with it at that time, which mostly likely means I'll ship it to TDK.

For those who are interested, I have provided pics that show the peice of post-it that did come out of the drive. I've also used a rudimentary drawing to help explain the concept.
http://www.cdrbase.com/showthread.php?s ... genumber=2

Don't feel too bad, Wedge,

We've all done stupid things like that from time to time. Trouble is, I'm too old to remember the stupid things that I've done.

Condolences,
Slim

My favorite dumb disaster (this is a true story) was a report from the guy who was using the open tray of his burner as an ashtray (holder) for his lit cigarette while he was doing something else.

He bumped the tray, and guess what, it retracted and digested his cigarette.

Given what a lit cigarette could do to the inside of a burner (no pun intended), I would rather have your problem.

Well I was working on my computer once and had unplugged a bunch of stuff while I was re arranging and adding new stuff. I put it all together and my burner and 2 SCSI hard drive were not working. I looked down with the machine running and the case open and realised I had unpluged the spliter that fed all of them. I reached in and reinserted the plug and POP.... somehow I had put the power in backwards. I now had 2 dead SCSI hard drives, also my 3 month old $400 12x burner. It cost me another 350 to replace it with a Plex 12x4x32....don't feel so bad....
I never really replaced the drives. The burner was what really hurt, I had traded stuff for the drives.